Re: The joy of actual numbers, was Democracy

On 11/11/2024 13:30, Niklas Karlsson wrote:

On 2024-11-10, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 10/11/2024 01:59, Niklas Karlsson wrote:

On 2024-11-08, Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> wrote:

>
I think mediaeval monks ate pretty well, certainly better than the
peasants. Ascetics they weren’t.

>
And there was the beer...
>
Niklas

>
Well yes, so weak that people could drink a gallon of it without
becoming drunk.
Bit like American beer.
[hard] Cider was the real McCoy. And mead. And wine.

 That's what I hear about beer among the great unwashed, certainly, but I
was under the impression that monastery beer was quite a different
matter. I could be mistaken, of course.
 

Later on it was.
But a huge amount of drinking was not to get drunk. It was to have a liquid that was safe to drink in large quantities that was free from bugs.
People who didn't drink from the river, but drank beer instead didn't have the squits.
So they didn't let the fermentation go all the way.
Just enough to rapidly produce a pleasant safer drink for thirsty peasants...

Niklas

--
"The great thing about Glasgow is that if there's a nuclear attack it'll look exactly the same afterwards."
Billy Connolly